Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1887-09-10
Allan Qlatelnail
BY HI. RIDER HAGGARD.
AUTHOR OF KINo soLoaoS's MINES" "sHE,"
JESS" THE wrrcH's HEAD" ETC
CHAPTER XIII.
ABOUT THE zU-vENDI PEOPLE

POLITICALLY inclined, imagine lying in her bed
of state encompassed by her maidens, firing
women, guards and all other people and ap-
purtenances that surround throne and vet
not able to slumber for thinking of the stran-
gers who had visited a country where no such
strangers had ever come before, and wonder
ing, as she lay awake, who they were and
what their past had been, and If she was
ugly compared DO the women Of their native
place. /, however. not being POLITICALLY in
clined, will take advantage of the lull to give
some account Of the people among whom we
found ourselves, compiled, needless to state.
from information which we subsequently col
lected.
The name Of this country, to begin at the
beginning, is Zu-Vendis, from Zu, yellow
and Vendis, "place or country" Why 1t is
called the Yellow Country have never been
able to ascertain accurately, nor do the in
habitants themselves know. Three reasons
are, however, given, each of which would
suffice to account for it. The first is that the
name owes its origin to the great quantity of
gold that is found in the land. Indeed, in
this respect Zu-Vendis is veritable Eldorado,
the precious metal being extraordinarily plen-
tiful.
The second reason given is, that at certain
seasons Of the year the native grasses of the
country, which are very sweet and good,
turn as yellow as ripe corn; and the third
arises from tradition that the people were
originally yellow skinned, but grew white
after living for many generations upon these
high lands. Zu-Vendis is a country about
the size of France, is, roughly speaking, oval
In shape, and on every side cut off from the
surrounding territory by illimitable forests Of
impenetrable thorn, beyond which are said to
be hundreds Of miles of morasses, deserts and
great mountains. 1t is, in short, a huge, high
table land rising up in the center Of the dark
continent, much as in southern Africa fiat
topped mountains rise from the level of the
surrounding veldt. Milosis itself lies, accord
ing to my aneroid, at level of about 1000
feet above the sea, but most of the land is
even higher, the greatest elevation Of the
open country being, / believe, about IL 900
feet AS consequence the climate is, COM
paratively speaking, a cold one, being very
similar to that of southern England, only
brighter and not so rainy. The land is, how
ever, exceedingly fertile, and grows all cereals
and temperate fruits and timber to perfec-
ton; and in the lower lying parts even pro-
duces hardy variety of sugar cane. Coal is
found in great abundance, and in many places
crops out from the surface; and so is pure
marble, both black and white. The same
may be said Of almost every metal except
silver, which is scarce, and only to be OBJ
tanned from a range of mountains in the
north.
Zu-Vendis comprises in her boundaries a
great variety Of scenery, including two
ranges of snowclad mountains. one on the
western boundary beyond the impenetrable
belt of thorn forest, and the other piercing
the country from north to south, and passing
at distance Of about eighty miles from Milo
sis, from which town its higher peaks are
distinctly visible. This range forms the chief
watershed Of the land. There are also three
large lakes-the biggest, namely that where
on we emerged, and which is named Milosis
after the city, covering some 200 square
miles OF country-and numerous small ones,
some of them salt.
The population Of this favored land is, COM
paratiVely speaking, dense, numbering at a
rough estimate from 10000, 900 to 12, 100000.
As to their descent, / can give no certain in
formation. Their written records, which ex-
tend back for about / 900 years, give no hint
of it. One very ancient chronicler does in
deed, in abiding to some old tradition that
existed In his day, talk of it as having prob
ably originally "come down with the people
from the coast" but that may mean little or
nothing. In short, the origin of the Zu-Vendi
Is lost in the mists of time. Whence they
came or Of what race they are no man knows.
Their architecture and some of their sculp-
lures suggest an Egyptian or possibly an As.
syrian origin; but it Is well known that their
present remarkable style Of building has only
sprung up within the last 800 years, and they
certainly retain no traces of Egyptian theolo-
gy or customs. Again, their appearance and
some of their habits are rather Jewish; but
here again it seems hardly conceivable that
they should have utterly lost all traces of the
Jewish religion. Still, for aught I know,
they may be one OF the lost ten tribes whom
people are so fond of discovering all over the
world, or they may not. l do not know, and
SO can only describe them as find them, and
leave wiser heads than mine to make what
they can out of it, if indeed this account
should ever be read at all, which is exceed
ingly doubtful.
In addition to being an agricultural people
the Zu-Vendi are, oddly enough, excessively
warlike; and as they cannot, from the ext
gency of their position, make war upon other
nations, they fight among each other like the
famed Kilkenny cats, with the happy result
that the population never outgrows the power
of the country to support it. This habit of
theirs is largely fostered by the political con-
dition of the country. The monarchy bis
nominally an absolute one, save in so far as it
is tempered by the power of the priests and
the informal council of the great lords; but,
as in many other such institutions, the kings
writ does not run unquestioned throughout
the length and breadth of the land.
Zu-Vendis has had its king makers as wei
as England, fact that will be appreciated
when | state that eight different dynasties
have sat upon the throne during the last
1000 years, every one of which took its rise
from some noble family that succeeded in
grasping the purple after sanguinary strug-
gle At the date Of our arrival in the country
things were little better than they had beer
for some centuries the last king, the father
of Nyleptha and Sorais, having been an ex
ceptionally able and vigorous ruler, and, as d
.an.nc,anoa kent down the mower of the